boots, bombs, and mystery

Deborah Kerr has died. Oh my …”An Affair to Remember” (sigh), “The King and I”, “From Here to Eternity” (that scene on the beach!). She was indeed a class act; a nice Scottish girl.

The Boston Red Sox have won their game tonight! Well done there. A Yankees fan myself, I root for the Sox when they are NOT playing the Yankees; Q’s grandmother is a Sox fan, uh a rabid Sox fan. There is a great deal of angst involved when one is a Red Sox fan…

I had a very productive day indeed. The weather is bloody brilliant – heavy misting rain to outright downpours and 10 to 12 degrees C. Thank you Canada. I love it! My other suitcase (the one with my clothes) arrived during the night, and was delivered to my room this morning. The FedEx package with my shoes and the Princess coat arrived shortly thereafter – so I’m dressed now.

The hotel is nice, and my room has a huge picture window, a roomy couch, desk, and tables, along with a big comfy bed, and a view of the mountains. Good lighting in the bathroom (this is important chaps believe me), and good service so far.

After an early night to bed last night, I was up this morning and downstairs to the quite nice gym (treadmills, elliptic, bikes, mats, and no free weights but the machines) for a hard run. I had a good workout, and then picked up my registration packet for the conference. At one o’clock I attended a class by Hallie Ephron on mystery writing, ergo writing a mystery. I don’t write mysteries (albeit I LOVE reading the good ones) but I think any story needs suspense. It was an excellent class. She is a clear and organized speaker who was entertaining as well; and has written quite a few successful mysteries herself. I met a couple of other writers who are from Canada.

Tomorrow is a full day of lectures, and I have a meeting with one of the agents at 1030 hours. I decided to take the pressure off myself and take the attitude of ‘listen and learn’ since this is my first conference; should anything more happen I will be thrilled. I am looking forward to learning much about the business of writing, and how to sell that writing.

I can’t believe the violence in Pakistan today; or rather I CAN believe it, but it saddens me greatly. My first thought was (because of politic real) to wonder if Musharaf had anything to do with instigating the violence against Bhutto, or if she herself may have planned it in order to stir up sympathy. What a world.

On the other hand I loved the article in The Globe and Mail today, “Swearing by what you do” which says that swearing in the workplace helps boost morale. Now that’s my kind of study!

Ciao.